Flying foxes on agenda

Mackay Regional Council has addressed the region's flying fox issue by releasing a public Statement of Management Intent (SoMI) document.

Passed through council yesterday, the management plan was particularly focussed on urban environments, director of development services Kevin Jeffries said.

"It's a plan about how council deals with the issue," he said. "Over the last couple of years (Queensland) councils have been delegated the responsibility to deal with flying foxes."

Mr Jeffries said members of the public could access the council documents online to understand how flying fox issues would be dealt with under the pertinent laws.

"We have had some incidences (recently) and we have nine known roost sites, which we are monitoring, but they are not causing us issues at the moment," he said.

Most of the roost sites are outside the populated areas of the region.

The council reviewed management plans from other local government authorities in Queensland as part of its review.

Cr Laurence Bonaventura ruled out any new measures to destroy or disperse flying foxes in the region under the SoMI. Flying foxes are a protected species under the Nature Conservation Act 1992 and destroying a flying fox roost can result in a maximum penalty of one year's imprisonment.

Flying foxes are hosts for both hendra virus and Australian bat lyssavirus.

In early 2013, eight-year-old Lincoln Flynn contracted and died from lyssavirus on Long Island in the Whitsundays.

Two of the three confirmed lyssavirus cases in Australia since 1996 occurred in the Mackay-Whitsunday region.